Wednesday, August 31, 2016

Violence took a slight dip in Iraq in the third week of
August. Both incidents and casualties were slightly down from the week before. There
were still a large number of executions by the Islamic State. On the government
side, it was still clearing the Ramadi-Fallujah corridor in Anbar, and moving
slowly in Ninewa in the march towards Mosul.

From August 22-28, 2016 there were 134 recorded incidents in
Iraq leading to 267 deaths and 312 wounded. Kirkuk, Ninewa, and Baghdad were
the most violence provinces during the week. Kirkuk had 68 deaths, Ninewa 70,
and Baghdad 93.

In Anbar, the government was still clearing the Khalidiya
Island area between Ramadi and Fallujah. The area was declared freed on July
31, but heavy fighting continued. Finally, on August
27, the Iraqi forces again said that it had liberated the area again. The
Islamic State responded with several counter attacks there, but it was also
active in the towns around Ramadi, and in western Anbar in Haditha and Rutba.
Those attacks led to a reported 16 dead and 15 wounded, 27 of which were
members of the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF).

With the Islamic State on the retreat in most of the
country, it continued to hit the capital. For several weeks, attacks in Baghdad
had been going down, but the last two weeks they jumped back up to double
digits almost every day. There were 78 incidents, 93 killed, and 242 injured
during the week. There was a car bomb in Arab
Jabour, along with 6 sticky bombs and 39 IEDs. The government launched
operations in Tarmiya
in the north and Arab
Jabour in the south, both long time militant bases. Unfortunately, security
in the capital is a mess with overlapping commands, intelligence agencies, and
security forces preventing any serious cooperation.

Diyala, which saw a doubling of incidents since the start of
the year was very quiet from August 22-28 with only 2 reported attacks.

On August 28,
the town of Ain
Tamur in Karbala was hit by a number of suicide bombers targeting a
wedding. First, they shot at the crowd, and then threw grenades, before two
were able to set off their devices. That left 18 dead and 28 wounded. The last
time the province was struck was at the start of June when a car bomb hit
Karbala city. Every few months the Islamic State attempts to infiltrate the
governorate through neighboring Anbar.

Kirkuk has seen an explosion of fatalities in recent weeks,
but not because of fighting with the insurgents, but rather due to executions.
The government is threatening the Hawija district, the last part of the
province that IS controls. In response, the group has been killing a large
number of civilians to maintain control. During the week 41 people were
executed with another 26 killed while trying to escape.

With the arrival of units from the Golden Division, the
government was finally able to free Qayara
in Ninewa. The operation to take the town was started on June
18. In just under a month the air base in the district was seized, and then
the Iraqi forces seemed to drastically slow down their push. It took another
month to finally get to Qayara itself. IS fought hard, but like recent battles
once the perimeter defenses were breached the town quickly fell. The group also
executed 35 people in the district, and hit a displaced camp in Makhmour with a
suicide
bomber. The bodies
of ten women were discovered in a former IS prison as well.

Salahaddin has become of secondary importance to IS in 2016.
There was a slight surge in attacks during the spring offensive, but since then
they have gone back down to only around one incident per day. During the third
week of August IS attacked the Makhoul Mountains, the Hamrin Mountains,
Shirqat, Baiji and Tuz Kharmato, mostly with car bombs that were destroyed
before hitting their targets. In total there were just 6 incidents with no
reported casualties.

There were just two successful car bombs in Iraq from August
22-28. One was in Anbar and the other in Baghdad. They caused 5 deaths and 10
wounded. The Iraqi forces claimed to have destroyed another 48, 3 in Anbar, 5
in Salahaddin, and 40 in Ninewa. Since the end of the spring offensive there has
been a large drop in car bombs each week.

IRAQ HISTORY TIMELINE

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About Me

Musings On Iraq was started in 2008 to explain the political, economic, security and cultural situation in Iraq via original articles and interviews. I have written for the Jamestown Foundation, Tom Ricks’ Best Defense at Foreign Policy and the Daily Beast, and was responsible for a chapter in the book Volatile Landscape: Iraq And Its Insurgent Movements. My work has been published in Iraq via NRT, AK News, Al-Mada, Sotaliraq, All Iraq News, and Ur News all in Iraq. I was interviewed on BBC Radio 5, Radio Sputnik, CCTV and TRT World News TV, and have appeared in CNN, the Christian Science Monitor, The National, Columbia Journalism Review, Mother Jones, PBS’ Frontline, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Institute for the Study of War, Radio Free Iraq, Rudaw, and others. I have also been cited in Iraq From war To A New Authoritarianism by Toby Dodge, Imagining the Nation Nationalism, Sectarianism and Socio-Political Conflict in Iraq by Harith al-Qarawee, ISIS Inside the Army of Terror by Michael Weiss and Hassan Hassahn, The Rise of the Islamic State by Patrick Cocburn, and others. If you wish to contact me personally my email is: motown67@aol.com